An Essay on Criticism | Page 9

With tyranny then superstition joined As that the body, this
enslaved the mind; Much was believed but little understood, And to be
dull was construed to be good; A second deluge learning thus o'errun,
And the monks finished what the Goths begun. [692]
At length Erasmus, that great injured name [693] (The glory of the
priesthood and the shame!) Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous
age, And drove those holy Vandals off the stage. [696]
But see! each muse, in Leo's golden days, [697] Starts from her trance
and trims her withered bays, Rome's ancient genius o'er its ruins spread

Shakes off the dust, and rears his reverent head Then sculpture and her
sister arts revive, Stones leaped to form, and rocks began to live; With
sweeter notes each rising temple rung, A Raphael painted, and a Vida
sung [704] Immortal Vida! on whose honored brow The poets bays and
critic's ivy grow Cremona now shall ever boast thy name As next in
place to Mantua, next in fame!
But soon by impious arms from Latium chased, Their ancient bounds
the banished muses passed. Thence arts o'er all the northern world
advance, But critic-learning flourished most in France, The rules a
nation born to serve, obeys; And Boileau still in right of Horace sways
[714] But we, brave Britons, foreign laws despised, And kept
unconquered and uncivilized, Fierce for the liberties of wit and bold,
We still defied the Romans as of old. Yet some there were, among the
sounder few Of those who less presumed and better knew, Who durst
assert the juster ancient cause, And here restored wit's fundamental
laws. Such was the muse, whose rule and practice tell "Nature's chief
masterpiece is writing well." Such was Roscommon, not more learned
than good, With manners generous as his noble blood, To him the wit
of Greece and Rome was known, And every author's merit, but his own
Such late was Walsh--the muse's judge and friend, Who justly knew to
blame or to commend, To failings mild, but zealous for desert, The
clearest head, and the sincerest heart, This humble praise, lamented
shade! receive, This praise at least a grateful muse may give. The muse
whose early voice you taught to sing Prescribed her heights and pruned
her tender wing, (Her guide now lost) no more attempts to rise, But in
low numbers short excursions tries, Content if hence the unlearned
their wants may view, The learned reflect on what before they knew
Careless of censure, nor too fond of fame, Still pleased to praise, yet
not afraid to blame, Averse alike to flatter, or offend, Not free from
faults, nor yet too vain to mend.
* * * * *

LINE NOTES
[Line 17: Wit is used in the poem in a great variety of meanings (1)

Here it seems to mean genius or _fancy_, (2) in line 36 _a man of
fancy_, (3) in line 53 the understanding or _powers of the mind_, (4) in
line 81 it means judgment.]
[Line 26: Schools--Different systems of doctrine or philosophy as
taught by particular teachers.]
[Line 34: Maevius--An insignificant poet of the Augustan age,
ridiculed by Virgil in his third Eclogue and by Horace in his tenth
Epode.]
[Lines 80, 81: There is here a slight inaccuracy or inconsistency, since
"wit" has a different meaning in the two lines: in 80, it means _fancy,_
in 81, judgment.]
[Line 86: The winged courser.--Pegasus, a winged horse which sprang
from the blood of Medusa when Perseus cut off her head. As soon as
born he left the earth and flew up to heaven, or, according to Ovid, took
up his abode on Mount Helicon, and was always associated with the
Muses.]
[Line 94: Parnassus.--A mountain of Phocis, which received its name
from Parnassus, the son of Neptune, and was sacred to the Muses,
Apollo and Bacchus.]
[Line 97: Equal steps.--Steps equal to the undertaking.]
[Line 129: The Mantuan Muse--Virgil called Maro in the next line (his
full name being, Virgilius Publius Maro) born near Mantua, 70 B.C.]
[Lines 130-136: It is said that Virgil first intended to write a poem on
the Alban and Roman affairs which he found beyond his powers, and
then he imitated Homer:
Cum canerem reges et proelia Cynthius aurem Vellit--_Virg. Ecl. VI_]
[Line 138: The Stagirite--Aristotle, born at the Greek town of Stageira
on the Strymonic Gulf (Gulf of Contessa, in Turkey) 384 B.C., whose
treatises on Rhetoric and the Art of Poetry were the earliest
development of a Philosophy of Criticism and still continue to be
studied.
The poet contradicts himself with regard to the principle he is here
laying down in lines 271-272 where he laughs at Dennis for
Concluding all were desperate sots and fools Who durst depart from
Aristotle's rules.]
[Line 180: